The council is calling on everyone who visits the borough’s parks and green spaces to make sure they bag up their rubbish and bring it home with them after record amounts of litter and rubbish were dumped over the past two weekends.

The current heatwave has seen huge numbers of people visiting the borough’s parks and commons to sunbathe, relax, meet friends, play sports or enjoy picnics.

Now the council is urging all park visitors to take their rubbish home with them and make sure they don’t spoil the park’s appearance for other people.

On average, around 45 tonnes of litter has to be picked up from parks and commons every month – mainly food and drink packaging. With the current heatwave in full swing, July’s figures are set to rocket.

The clean-up costs local council tax payers more than £400,000 a year – money that could otherwise be spent on improving public facilities in parks and open spaces.

The council’s environment spokesman Cllr Jonathan Cook said: “It really is absolutely shocking just how little respect some people have for their local parks and green spaces. They come and have a lovely afternoon and then just get up and go leaving huge piles of rubbish behind.

“I find it very hard to comprehend how anyone could think this is reasonable behaviour. People should not be treating their local parks as a dumping ground. Over the past two weekends we have had to pick up record amounts of waste. We do this quickly and efficiently because we take great pride in our environment and we want our parks to look their best, but it is costly for taxpayers, and we would much rather spend this money on making our parks even better places to visit.

“I would really urge anyone who comes to the park and has a picnic to bag up their litter and take it home with them afterwards. That way we can all help to keep our open spaces the best in London.”